“Condensed tomato soup and beaten egg are combined with ground beef, rice, chopped onion, parsley, and seasonings. The mixture is formed into meatballs, and simmered in a covered skillet with additional soup and Worcestershire sauce for 20 to 30 minutes.”

I was unable to find my Mom's recipe for porcupine meatballs so I decided to try something different and I can't say it was all that wonderful. I followed the recipe as written (although I only used 2 Tbsp Worcestershire since I'm not a fan). They started to fall apart immediately, I wasn't even able to get to the pan with them. As a result I wound up making a sauce rather than meatballs and I served it over pasta.
The taste was nothing spectacular but not the worst either. It actually reminded me of when my mom would brown some hamburger, add some onion and celery, and add a couple cans of Spaghetti-O's to throw together a very quick dinner.
I did look around and found Mom's recipe which is the one I'll use going forward. Mom's recipe uses slightly more rice, some additional liquid in the meatball mix, and holds together much better with a more flavorful sauce.

Reviewer:

Great recipe. I used the full amount of Worcestershire Sauce, and added a couple of shakes of hot pepper sauce to the meat mixture. I used regular rice, browned the meatballs and put everything in the slow cooker. Meatballs were very moist and the rice was done. The only thing I would do differently would be to add a can of water to my soup mixture. Because I used a slow cooker, my sauce was too thick (though very tasty).

Reviewer:

Saucy - perhaps even a bit too saucy (there was lots of sauce left-over) due to the recipe using 2 cans of soup, when all other porcupine meatball recipes call for only 1 can. I will return to Better Homes & Gardens classic porcupine meatball recipe.

Reviewer:

Having grown up on tomato based porcupine meatballs, as well as the mushroom soup variety, I was excited to find a recipe that brought back a childhood staple. This was a great recipe. Used tomato sauce instead of soup as that's what I had and added garlic powder out of habit when it comes to ground beef. This was a big hit with my husband too.

Reviewer:

this is so similar to my mom's recipe that i can attest that it does work. she never used the seasoning (parsley and onion powder, altho i do sometimes). she always used 1 can of soup, which was always too little, i always doubled it. never used the worchester, because it causes hubby indigestion. mom's was always done ontop of a double boiler and she cursed that recipe, cause she'd be slaving over the stove for 45 mins and the thigns wouldn't cook. then i came across recipes that browned them in the skillet, like this one. which worked great, but i always had an issue with them sticking to the skillet and falling apart..then i discovered putting them in the oven..*lightbulb goes off*. so i stick em in 400 degreese on a silicone baking mat, they brown perfectly. u can either then throw them in the sauce and simmer, or let them cook thru, add em to sauce, and freeze or save for later. will only take mins while your cooking the spaghetti to heat ;) I also don't recall if her recipe added an egg, i think not, so i did. I think that's another reason why they tend to fall apart. I'm making some now with an egg, but lately i've been using half ground pork and that seemed to help hold them together. i'm out of ground pork, so back to basics. :)

Reviewer:

WOW. The best ever!!! My grandma is a very good cook and she could never top this... the right texture, rice was done and plenty of sauce at first you think you have to much sauce, but when you break the balls open, its very good for dipping.
Thanks....that will be on my menu,,,

Reviewer:

I ended up using one can of tomato soup and one can of tomato sauce, cooked white rice instead of instant, and hamburger that had been thawing in the fridge all day - many of the meatballs fell apart but who cares? It is still delicious! We served it over the rest of the rice that didn't make it into the meatballs.